


Lattes and Love Stories

by drowning_in_coffee



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: F/M, M/M, No Smut, flirty cute shit, hot topic/starbucks, jily, wolfstar
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-03
Updated: 2017-03-03
Packaged: 2018-09-28 03:24:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,555
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10069013
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/drowning_in_coffee/pseuds/drowning_in_coffee
Summary: Tumblr prompt said, "Give me 16 year old Sirius Black working at Hot Topic in a mall and meeting 16 year old Remus Lupin working at the Starbucks he goes to everyday in the food court during his breaks. Give me Remus purposely spelling Sirius' names wrong or putting things like "Drama Queen" or "Emo from Hot Topic" on the cup. Give me Sirius asking Remus out and Remus spilling coffee all over himself."Well, here it is.





	

**Author's Note:**

> This one's for one of best friends, Maria. She keeps motivating me all the time and her words, both, the ones that appreciate and the ones that criticise, have always pushed me to keep improving my writing.

Remus was sitting behind the counter, his chair dangerously close to tipping backwards and falling. He was reading again during his shift and if Lily saw him, she would have his head.  He’d already slacked off multiple times because he'd been far too engrossed in a book and he never even realized the customer was standing there, expecting him to take their order.

"Oi, mate!"

Remus jumped at the sudden shout, his book flying out of his hands. The chair, that he'd been balancing on just two legs, tipped backwards at the sudden movement and the next moment, Remus was sprawled across the floor awkwardly, chair lying next to him with one of his legs on top of it. He lay there frozen for a second before curling up into a ball and wincing, mostly at the embarrassment than the pain.

"Fuck, mate, you okay?"

Remus groaned and rolled onto his back, before getting to his feet slowly. He bent down and picked up the chair and the book, wincing at the pain in his waist. The fall must've jerked it and now any sort of movement hurt. He looked back up at the customer staring at him, half anxious and half amused. He was wearing a blank tank top with some sort of bloody art on it, his hair was tied up in a loose bun and he had a small lip ring. And _was he wearing eyeliner?_ Like not even the “guyliner” (stupid term, if you ask him. It's just eyeliner on a guy. It certainly wasn't necessary to term it that way) proper winged eyeliner that he'd seen countless girls that walked into the store wearing.  Remus's lips twitched up in an amused smile at how terribly applied the eyeliner actually was. The guy was probably just starting out on makeup, but Remus had to give him an A+ for effort.

The guy snapped his fingers in front of his face.

"Are you concussed? Christ, you're concussed, aren't you? You've been staring blankly for _hours_ and now you've got a stupid smile on your face. JAMES! James, where the fuck are you -"

"I'm not concussed,” Remus snapped, “And hours? You haven't been here five minutes."

"I've been here long enough to see you fall down - embarrassingly so, may I add - and then be all spaced out and staring blankly. That's a sign of concussion, y’know."

"Oh? And how would you know? Are you a med student?"

"No...but I have been concussed multiple times, so I'm an expert."

"Those multiple concussions haven't made you an expert, but I do believe they’ve successfully managed to damage your brain. You should get yourself checked.” Remus smiled his typical sarcastic fake smile that he usually used to punctuate an argument, " _N_ _ow_ , may I have your order?”

The guy stared at him for a long moment before giving in and throwing his head back and laughing.

"I like you," he said, grinning.

"Glad to know I have your approval," Remus said, although he couldn't help but smile slightly. The guy’s laugh was incredibly delightful, "Going to give your order now?"

He looked at the menu and had barely even read it before looking back up at him and saying, "I'll have a caramel cinnamon latte."

Remus typed it up on the register while asking, "Anything else?"

"Nope," the guy replied simply.  

"Name?" Remus asked, looking back up.

"Anything you'd like it to be, darling," he said, winking.

Remus rolled his eyes but said, "Alright," he billed it up and said, "That'll be a $4.50."

The guy fished out the money and dropped them on the counter, which Remus placed into the drawer below. He asked the guy to wait for a few minutes. Since there weren't any more customers, he signed at Lily, who had just reentered the store after her regular stroll, to handle the register in case anyone came along while he moved to make the drink. The guy moved in sync with him, and leaned on the counter in front of Remus, his chin resting in his hand. It was awkward, having a guy’s eyes on you as you did your job, but Remus managed to get through it quickly. He filled up the cup and placed the lid, before picking up the sharpie and scribbling a few words on it. He walked up to the guy, who stood up straight immediately as Remus approached, and placed it in front of him. The guy picked up the cup and twisted it to read the name before rolling his eyes, but grinning nevertheless.

" _Annoying Emo_? Really?"

Remus shrugged, "You did say anything I want it to be."

"Fair enough," he said, "For future references, however, the name is Sirius."

"Future references? Going to be a regular pain in my arse now, are you?"

"Of course, I am."

Remus smiled, rolling his eyes, "Remus," he said.

"Remus...Founder of Rome?"

"You know your mythology," Remus commented.  

Sirius hummed, "My dear mother was into mythology."

"How'd you end up with an astronomical name then?"

"Runs in the family," Sirius said simply, "I'm actually Sirius III, I think."

Remus raised his eyebrow which Sirius replied to with a shrug.

"Well, I better get going," Sirius said after a moment, "Marge is going to have my head for being late _again._ "

"Alright," Remus said, leaning back, "See you around."

"See you around," Sirius repeated, as he turned around and walked out, leaving Remus to stare at his retreating back.

 Remus jumped when someone nudged his side.

"He works at Hot Topic," Lily said, her tone laced with amusement, "Just in case you want to go around and stalk him."

Remus turned to her with a scowl and said, "Oh, fuck off."

**~*~**

Remus had had to resist the urge to "casually" walk around Hot Topic all of previous day and Lily’s level of amusement had just gone on increasing the more agitated he became. Today was no better. He was this close to dropping everything and strolling out to go see (*cough* stalk) Sirius, when Sirius himself walked in. He looked at Remus and a smile lit up on his face.

"Fancy seeing you here," he said lightly.

"Likewise." Remus grinned.

Sirius had his hair up in an even messier bun today, wearing ripped black jeans and a rainbow coloured shirt, which prompted an eyebrow raise from Remus.

"Why are you wearing rainbow?"

"I'm celebrating gay pride," Sirius said proudly

"Today isn't gay pride day," Remus pointed out.

"Darling, e _veryday_ is a gay pride day."

Remus gave a short laugh, "Fair enough."

"I'm feeling particularly gay today. I needed to let everyone know."

"Well, you've certainly managed that."

Remus started up the register, "What will it be today then?"

"Same as yesterday," Sirius replied immediately.

"Same price as yesterday then," Remus said, typing up the order as Sirius dug through his pockets for money.  

Despite the fact that there were a few customers behind Sirius today, Lily stepped in immediately and told Remus to go make the drinks. Just like yesterday, Sirius stood behind the counter wordlessly and watched Remus make his latte. When he placed the cup before Sirius, Sirius grinned and asked, "What's my name today?"

"Why don't you just read it?"

Sirius gave him an amused look before picking up the cup and reading the words, before promptly bursting into laughter.

_"Gay Emo_. Exactly how I'm feeling today, honestly."  

Lily called out another order at him to make and Remus looked at Sirius, who promptly waved his hand absently and said, "Go do your job. I should go do mine as well."

**~*~**

Over the next two weeks, Sirius dropped in every afternoon at around the same time and ordered the exact same thing. On the third day, Remus asked him to buy something else for once. On the fourth, he didn't even bother asking and wrote up his order before Sirius could say anything (Sirius clutched his heart as if touched. “Darling,” he said dramatically, “You know me so well!”). Each day the cup had a different name written on it in Remus's messy handwriting. _Emo from Hot Topic -_ was when Remus couldn't think of anything else, _Angsty Emo_ (Sirius had been moping and moaning about what how terrible James, and Marge were to him), _Adorable Emo_ was when Sirius had walked in with his hair in two braids, and _Drama Queen_ had been because Sirius had been so dramatically touched at ‘Adorable Emo’, he'd proceeded to clutch Remus’ hand and say, “Sweetheart, I always knew you found me absolutely majestic.” which Remus had promptly replied to by rolling his eyes and saying, “Is there anything you can do without making it the most dramatic thing in the world?” (He didn't take his hand back until Sirius let go, though), _Emo That Deserves Better_ was when Sirius had ended up telling him all about his shitty family. That name had successfully managed to lighten up the serious mood. Sirius started dropping in more often, not just during his official breaks, but randomly throughout the day. Anytime Hot Topic was empty enough, he'd beg Marge for a break and end up at Starbucks, sitting near the counter and talking with Remus in the few minutes he could steal. Remus heard a lot about James Potter the entire time, which ended up in him believing he was Sirius’s boyfriend. And no, definitely didn't feel disappointed or anything - that would be ridiculous, he'd only known Sirius for two weeks. He also definitely didn't feel relieved at all when Sirius had laughed at Remus’s assumptions and told him immediately that no, James wasn't his boyfriend and that he was actually pining after Lily. When he'd asked Lily about it, she'd replied dismissively -

"He's an arse who's full of himself and is extremely annoying. Exactly like Sirius."

"I thought you liked Sirius!" Remus had protested.

"I do like Sirius. I'm just stating facts here."

Remus had leaned against the wall while she closed up the shop.

"So why don't you like James?"

"He's an arse."

"So's Sirius."

"He's a different kind of arse."

"You said they were exactly the same."

"Oh, for fuck’s sake," she'd muttered exasperatedly, "Sirius isn't pining after me even when I turned him down multiple times!"

"Oh."

They didn't really speak about James after that. Until Remus finally met the infamous James Fleamont Potter. Sirius walked in at his usual time, but a messy haired bespectacled kid was walking with him, their arms hooked while they both laughed about something. Remus immediately knew the kid was James, given how much Sirius had talked about him. He was wearing skinny black jeans and a simple white tee with his atrocious black hair sticking up in all directions. When they reached the counter, Sirius leaned against it and winked, saying, “Hello, love.” Remus rolled his eyes (something he seemed to do was too often when it came to Sirius) but smiled anyway.

"Four Eyes here is -"

"Potter."

Lily had just entered the store again and was standing behind Sirius and James, hands on her hips. James, who'd turned around to look at her, ran a hand through his hair and grinned.

"Hey Lily."

Lily rolled her eyes.

James was saying something but Remus couldn't hear anything since Sirius leaned towards him at that moment and whispered, "I'm going to have to make hot chocolate and marshmallow again tonight."

"Why?" Remus whispered back.

"Because every time Lily rejects him, he ends up crying and moping."

Remus snorted.

"Why does he even keep asking then?"

"Love makes you blind," Sirius sighed dramatically.

Remus raised an eyebrow, " _Does_ he love her?"

"Oh yeah. I mean, it's different because he doesn't know her very well but he loves her enough to be blinded by hope."

"Love makes you blind," Remus repeated, shaking his head.  

"Why does Lily keep turning him down, though?"

“No clue.” Remus shrugged. “She won't talk about it.”

"You know," Lily’s voice cut through their conversation, "We can hear you."

Remus and Sirius jumped back and looked at Lily and James looking back at them with identical scowls. They looked back at each other and grinned sheepishly. Lily shook her head and walked around the counter and headed straight to the back of the shop. Remus didn't even bother trying to stop her, knowing it'll probably just end in her snapping at him. Remus turned back to Sirius and James, who was now standing there staring at the door where Lily had gone in. Sirius looked at James, then back at him and gave him the told-you-so look which Remus could only snort at.  

"So, you're James," Remus said, turning to him. James looked at him and his face split into a warm smile. He walked forward and held his out which Remus took immediately.

"Yep, the only one," James said, grinning, "And you must be Remus. I've heard _a lot_ about you. Sirius doesn't shut up - _OW!_ "

James glared at Sirius who was just smiling innocently but given James’s extremely loud yell of pain, it was pretty clear Sirius had just stepped on his foot.

"Anyway…" Remus said, "What will it be today?"

"You know mine," Sirius said promptly.

"Of course I know yours. You apparently drink only one bloody drink. I was talking to James."

“I bring James for one day and you already forget to talk to me," Sirius said, frowning, "I feel betrayed."

"James is far prettier," Remus retorted, "I'll take him over you any day."

Sirius gasped dramatically, clutching his heart, "You dare say that to my own face?!"

"Would you prefer I cheated on you behind your back?"

"You, Remus Jacobson Lupin -"

"That isn't my middle name."

"- are a terrible person."

Remus rolled his eyes. "And you, Sirius Orion Black -"

"How did you even find out _my_ middle name?"

"- are a right old dramatic idiot."

"Right," James interrupted, "If you two are done flirting, I'll have an espresso please."

"We weren't flirting,"Remus said at once as he typed up the order.

"We were definitely flirting," Sirius said.

Remus gave him his classic blank look which Sirius replied to by sending a pretentious kiss. The door behind opened and Lily stepped out, looking far more pleasant than when she'd stomped in.

"I'll take over here," she said quickly, "Go make the drinks."

"Perfect timing," Remus said, as he accepted the money James had placed on the counter.

**~*~**

James, Remus found out, usually avoided Starbucks during Lily’s shift but he still could be found wandering around the shop trying to get a glimpse of her ("That is terribly creepy," Remus commented. Sirius laughed loudly, "Trust me, I know."). Turns out he'd spent months trying to force himself on her and finally, he'd grown some brains and realized that that only makes Lily hate him more. So he'd backed off, but he still liked to look at her. Sirius was always half scared Lily was going to file a restraining order against at him at some point. James did start coming around a little more often, though. Remus strongly suspected Sirius would drag him in, hoping Lily would see he wasn't just an annoying, persistent prat. When Remus accused of it, however, Sirius promptly turned all wide eyed and innocent and pretended he had no idea what Remus was saying (Sirius was a shit liar). Lily did sort of grow more tolerant of James, now that he wasn't asking her out with each sentence that came out of his mouth but she was in no way even starting to like him. At least, as far as Remus could tell. Lily had always been hard to read and he couldn't tell what went on with her half the time.

It was another day like that, when James was practically pushed into the cafe with Sirius walked behind, grinning widely. Remus laughed at the nervous look on James’s face as he held a box of chocolates meant for Lily as an apology. As Sirius moved to stand in front of Remus’s side, James stood by Lily, awkwardly trying to apologize, as he did every time he saw her now. Apologies had become routine in their conversations, and Remus was always half worried Lily was going to snap at him for that very reason. Surprisingly, it turned out Lily actually found them sweet and awkwardly adorable. Besides, she was getting free chocolates and flowers and she really wasn't going to complain about that.

"Anything to drink?" Remus asked

Sirius who shrugged and said, "Surprise me."

Remus frowned and replied, "The last time you asked me to surprise you with a drink, you ended up spitting it out and then handing it to me because you found it utterly disgusting."

Sirius laughed at that, "Just make me the caramel cinnamon latte then."

"Do you think those two can ever actually get together?" Remus asked, nodding towards them as he poured milk in the container.

Sirius didn't answer for a long moment and when Remus looked up at him, he was staring at the pair of them. James was still awkwardly fumbling with his words and running his hand through his hair far too often while Lily, for the first time Remus had ever seen, was looking genuinely happy when it came to James.

"Yes," Sirius said. Remus hummed in question as he went back to making the latte.

"James doesn't _pine_. He never has because he's never liked anyone like he likes Evans. He just...he's not _in love_ yet. He's smitten, for now. But he can and will fall in love if Lily gives him a chance. He's persistent and he kept asking her out because he's got such a limited experience in relationships, he's basically just clueless. He just hoped that if he kept asking, she'll end up liking him somehow."

"That makes absolutely no sense," Remus said.

Sirius shrugged, "That's James. He's hopelessly naive sometimes. He looks at things in the most positive light sometimes and Lily is like the brightest spot for him."

"Lily finds him annoying."

"Does she?" That made Remus look up in question. "She seems to be liking him just fine right now," he said, nodding at the pair, "I've been telling James to stop asking her out all the time and try and talk… apologise before anything else. He's been meaning to do it for a long while now but he hasn't had a proper chance until now. It seems to be working out a bit…"

"I could try talking to Lily?" Remus offered.

Sirius shook his head, "That woman will snap you if you do that."

Remus laughed, "She would, wouldn't she?"

Remus realised he's completely given up on making the drinks and had instead, ended up staring up at Sirius as he talked. It wasn't very often that Sirius did that. He's usually crack jokes, flirt with him, fool around, and be generally as dramatic and light hearted as possible. Over the past three weeks, he'd talked like this only like four times. He's just take a chair, sit at the counter and talk while sipping his drink, even offering Remus some which he'd politely declined every time. When Sirius talked, it felt like the world should stop and listen. The first time had been a bit about his family, then about running away from home and then mostly about James. With every word, Sirius painted a story of himself. Remus found himself creating this mental book of Sirius where every page was filling up slowly with everything Sirius said. It was crazy. He's known him for not even three whole weeks and he'd already become such a big part of him. Remus returned the favour sometimes, but he mostly preferred to listen to Sirius talking. Besides, Remus couldn't help but be distracted by that lip ring of his.

Remus shook his head and went back to making the coffees. Five minutes later, he placed James’s drink on the counter while handing Sirius his. Sirius grinned as he lifted it up to read today’s name.

" _Intellectual Emo_ ,” he read, snorting, “Thank you.”

Remus smiled.

**~*~**

James started coming around quite a few times per day now. Even if Sirius didn't come along, James would be sitting there, watching Remus make drinks and talking to Remus about Lily mostly, but he did end up finding out a lot about James’s personal life as well because James liked to talk. He filled every silence by blabbing on about things that didn't make half sense sometimes. Remus replied by talking about Sirius. He'd always get this stupid smile on his face every time he'd start talking about Sirius and James would end up snapping his fingers in front of his face, a smug grin on her face whenever he did that and Remus would just shoot him the finger. A few days later, Remus would easily say James was one of his best friends. He's the sort of person that doesn't require much time to get close to. One day he was no one but Sirius’s best mate, and the next, he was Remus’s moping buddy. Lily, surprisingly, joined into the conversation sometimes. The first she'd done so without being prompted, James had been so surprised, he's stopped breathing and didn't reply for a long moment, until Remus had snapped his fingers in front of his face, laughing smugly (that had earned him the finger). After that, conversations between Lily and James flowed smoother and James seemed to go higher over the moon with each day. In another two weeks’ time, by some miracle, Lily and James seemed to be _flirting._ Not the blatant flirting like Remus and Sirius, but enough for everyone to notice the miracle. Marge, who'd come in to call Sirius and James back to the store one day, had immediately raised her eyebrows at James leaning against the counter, talking with Lily as she laughed and replied with an exaggerated eye roll while typing up his order.

"Yep, that's actually happening," Sirius had said.

"How in the world did that even happen?"

"A few apologies with flowers and boxes of chocolates can work wonders."

"No way he won her over that easily."

"Not yet,” Remus had said, “They've got a long way to go, but it's progress."

While James and Lily were slowly building up their friendship, Remus and Sirius had progressed to much more. They'd exchanged numbers a while back and the two wouldn't stop talking now. Remus would wake up to texts from Sirius complaining about waking up. Texts kept flooding in throughout the day and Remus often found himself waiting for the familiar notification ring to chirp in his pockets. Late nights found them calling each other in the dark and talking long and loud enough that both Peter, Remus's dorm mate and James, Sirius's roommate, started groaning about it in a few days time. It came to a point when Peter had taken the efforts to get up from bed at one in the morning, walk up to his bed, snatch the phone from him and say, “Go to sleep, Black.” and hanging up immediately. Remus, instead of being annoyed, had ended up laughing really hard while Peter had just walked back to his bed and gone back to sleep. Late night phone calls dropped down after that, but texts kept going. Peter would groan about the phone light being distracting at night as well, but Remus would just roll his eyes because while he texted Sirius, Peter, who claimed the phone light was causing sleeping problems, would be snoring loud enough for the entire dormitory to hear. Those were the best conversations, though. Being late, sleep deprived and exhausted, neither of them would have any filter whatsoever, and they'd end up laughing at the silliest of things. Besides that, it was also a time when they both felt safe enough to open up about some of their deepest stuff. It was in these conversations of mere _days_ that Remus learned more about Sirius than he'd done in the past three _weeks._

They couldn't meet much outside of their jobs, owing to their different and hectic college schedules but the regular meetups and nightly phone calls served well enough for now. With each day, Remus seemed to fall border for Sirius and yes, Sirius flirted a lot, but Remus didn't know how much of it was supposed to be serious. He assumed none of it, because he's Remus Lupin and Remus Lupin always expects the most negative of things. That did not, however, stop him from wanking off to the thought of Sirius’s hands being the one wanking him instead of his own, or of Sirius’s mouth doing it instead. Although, he mostly just thought of Sirius’s lips and that agonising lip ring that continued to torture him. He kept thinking of its metallic taste on his tongue if he ever kissed Sirius, and the feeling of the cold metal touching his bare skin as Sirius kissed down his jaw and neck and chest, and kept going further down, the ring dragging across his skin. It was frankly ridiculous and probably downright creepy, just how much Remus was fantasising about Sirius but he couldn't help it. He was a 16 year old hormonal kid who currently had a massive, _massive_ crush on a guy who seemed to make the filthiest innuendos sound the sexiest. Even when he'd try so hard not to think of Sirius when he wanked off, somehow, along the way, he'd find his brain coming up with images of Sirius doing every little thing that he desperately wanted to do at that point. Needless to say, that only made the daily talks slightly harder because Remus couldn't help but think of all those mental images he'd come up with about him the previous nights.

Still, things were going great. Sirius loved talking to him, and he never missed a day of visiting Remus - at least not without telling him first. And even when he didn't visit him, Remus’s phone would be bombarded with texts after texts from him, complaining about how much he missed him. Remus, of course, would send back a sassy, sarcastic reply but he couldn't help but grin and blush like a little girl when he received texts like that. Lily had started telling him off for slacking off the job but Remus generally retorted, saying Lily didn't have the right to say anything since she, herself, could be found taking breaks to go meet James. At the end of the day, they both agreed they're both idiots who'll potentially lose their jobs over boys.

**~*~**

Sirius and James came in at their usual time again, strutting in as if they owned the place. While James was distracted by Lily waving at them, Sirius came up to Remus at once, elbows resting on the counter, and chin in his hand as he sent him a pretentious kiss. Remus rolled his eyes but walked up to him, leaning down to mimic his position.  

"What will it be today?"

"Nothing today, love," Sirius said, "Just here to see your beautiful face."

"Always the charmer, aren't you?"

Sirius smiled.

Lily handed him a receipt of an order, and Remus went back to doing his job. Sirius, who'd usually talk hundred miles an hour, just stood there, watching Remus work.

"You're uncharacteristically quiet today," Remus commented after a moment.

Sirius hummed lightly.

Remus looked at him, "Hey, everything okay?"

"Remus?" he said, ignoring the question.

"Yeah?"

"Can I ask you a question?"

"Yes?"

"Do you promise not to freak out?"

"Uh...maybe?"

"Would you like to be my boyfriend?"

Remus’s hand slipped and the drink that he'd been pouring into the cup landed all over his clothes. He jumped back instinctively and dropped the jug onto the floor. He mumbled every single curse he knew under his breath as he looked down at himself, drenched and sticky.

"Fuck," Sirius said loudly, "I'm so sorry!"

Remus looked up at him to find him literally climbing the counter. He jumped onto Remus’s side and froze there, looking at the mess that was Remus.

"I'll - uh - I'll help you clean up," he said frantically, "And I'll pay. Don't worry about that. Fuck, I shouldn't have asked that. I'm so sorry -"

"Sirius?" Remus interrupted.

"Yeah?" Sirius asked, breathing heavily.

"Please shut up so I can kiss you."

"Oh."

Sirius bit his lip, looking at Remus apprehensively. His teeth kept playing with the lip ring and it just frustrated Remus even more. Remus walked up to him and pulled him close by the neck, not giving a shit that his hands were all sticky. And finally, _finally,_ Remus kissed him - slowly and delicately, like he was half scared Sirius would want to run but Sirius, who hadn't even taken a second to respond was kissing back already, his hands on his waist as he pulled him closer. Remus smiled lightly when he realised he finally had that evil, atrocious lip ring that he'd cursed (and wanked to) so often between his own teeth now and it all felt surreal for a moment. He was kissing Sirius Black in the middle of the cafe, while he was covered in a cold coffee and smearing it all over Sirius as well. It wasn't exactly how he'd imagined his first kiss with Sirius going, but he wasn't complaining. As long as Sirius had his hands around his waist and his lips against his own, Remus would be fine with anything.

It was only when Lily and James hooted, whistled and clapped that Sirius and Remus finally broke apart, laughing lightly. The three customers sitting at the corner of the cafe were looking at them and laughing as well, one of the girls joining in with the whistles and that only made Remus and Sirius laugh harder. Sirius bowed down dramatically which earned him an eye roll from Remus. He promptly chased it away by stealing a quick kiss.

"So we're a thing then?" Sirius asked against his lips, still grinning.

"Yes," Remus kissed him again, "Yes, you idiot. We're a huge fucking thing."

"We aren't exactly there at the fucking part yet."

"We'll change that soon enough."

"Ooh, I like the sound of that."

**~*~**

Things were _brilliant_ after that. Everything about their relationship stayed exactly the same, except for the added advantage of being able to kiss each other any time they wanted. Remus didn't have to fantasize about Sirius while wanking off anymore, because Sirius would either be right there, doing all those things Remus had dreamt of in person, or he'd be on the phone, wanking off at the same time on the other end (Peter was rarely found at their dorm anymore, instead seeking refuge from all the sex noises at their neighbour’s or his girlfriend’s). Neither James nor Lily had let Remus live down the fact that he'd spilled coffee all over himself when he'd been asked out and Sirius continued to mimic the face he'd had when that had happened all the time. Two months after their relationship started, Sirius burst into the cafe, screaming, "THEY KISSED!" and proceeded to show Remus the recording of Lily and James kissing in front of Hot Topic. That night called for a double date, which had just been a movie at the IMAX theatres in the mall itself after their shifts ended, where they basically spent most of their time throwing popcorn at each other and a lot of accidental groping of the wrong person in the dark (even they have no clue how that happened when the person they were meant to actually grope was sitting right next to them. They all decided to forget it ever happened). Names on the coffee took a slightly different turn, now that they were together. What had previously been just ridiculous adjectives stuck to the word _Emo,_ had turned to words Remus found hard to say out loud. Their first ‘I love you’ was written on the coffee cup and Sirius had been so delighted, he'd grabbed Remus by the shirt and yanked him close, kissing the living lights out of him. And yes, they fought. Over the stupidest of things most of the time. But they also laughed, and teased and played and _loved_ and that was enough for them to fight against those fights. At the end of the day, every struggle, every fight, every tear was worth the kisses and the smiles and the hugs they found within each other.

If you asked Remus Lupin his opinion on Starbucks six months back, he'd say it was annoying and overrated and ridiculously expensive. Ask him why he worked there, he'll tell you he joined out of obligation and necessity. Now? Remus will firmly say that Starbucks had turned into his favorite place. It was the place where he'd made amazing new friends, the place where he'd done stupid shit that turned out to be some of the best moments of his life, the place where he'd witnessed the birth of a love story, and the place where he'd _lived_ his own love story. All he could do now was hope that the love story would last a lifetime.

**~*~**


End file.
